How the international media covered the Russian-Ukrainian war, April 19
Lately, there have been multiple publications looking into Putin’s role models and sources of his ideology. The Spectator writes about Ivan Ilyin, the Christian fascist, as a role model for the Russian president. During Soviet times Ilyin was a resolute opponent of communism but in the 90-s his views became rehabilitated as his writings called to arms for the resurrection of Russian imperial power. Ilyin described a strong, totalitarian leader, a “Tsar” who would lead Russia “in the great historical battle between the servants of God and the forces of hell”. Putin has mentioned Ilyin multiple times in his speeches and even made sure that his key manuscript becomes required reading for Russian regional governors. Looking into what Ilyin wrote and how it is interpreted by his modern followers, like Alexandr Dugin, the dangerous part is not the Russian wish to absorb the former Soviet republics but the vision of it is of an apocalyptic battle between the forces of good (Russia) and evil (the West).
A national security strategy expert Sean McFate writes in The Hill about the Russian mercenaries group Wagner and potential strategies of how to deal with them. The mystery behind Putin’s mercenaries is that they exist under the Kremlin umbrella, at the same time mercenary is illegal in Russia which makes it easy to control the personnel. According to McFate, Putin relies on the Wagner group for at least two reasons: first, it provides excellent plausible deniability as Wagner is not a part of the Russian armed forces, and second ― mercenaries disguise the true cost of war as no one cares of dead mercenaries. As the group is quite qualified and dangerous, NATO has to neutralize it, writes McFate. His suggestion is to make them unattractive to Moscow, so they go bankrupt and disappear. One of the ideas that might help is helping Wagner mercenaries find better employment away from Moscow reach, another ― shining more light on Wagner’s operations to make it harder for Kremlin to deny their presence in Ukraine.
Forbes writes of the inevitable and unprecedented shift of Ukraine to a new NATO arsenal and the challenges that would follow. Right now, allies are donating whatever remaining soviet weapons systems to Ukraine, but these antiques, often stored under dubious conditions, are in finite supply, and it is unlikely there will be new sources of supply. Therefore, the only chance for Ukraine to win is for the West to start supplying Western weapons. The key challenge for Ukraine will be harmoniously shiting to an unfamiliar arsenal, which would include personnel training and development of new supply chains, and all of this during active warfare. The logistical challenges will be hard as soon as Ukrainian soldiers get western weapons, there would be a need for an operational supply chain for ammunition, fuel, and even tools in the garage that would fit new machinery.